The Alberta Wheat Commission and its Saskatchewan counterpart will spend $1.6 million over three years on seven wheat research projects. These include stripe rust surveillance to improve resistance in regional wheat varieties, developing a reliable method of gene editing in wheat to simplify the breeding process, and improving nitrogen use efficiency.

Other research will look at the value of early fungicide applications, precision breeding, and nitrogen fixation in triticale and wheat.

The funding is channelled through the Ag Funding Consortium, a partnership of 13 organizations established to create a one-window approach for agricultural research and development funding in the province.